Wow, cool - the 'block editor' looks a lot like Scratch. Is it Scratch? I'm having trouble finding many details about the technical side of it. I think 'visual programming' has a lot of promise for education, but...jeez, after looking into it for awhile I'm sort of losing hope that it isn't a gimmick or fad. Has anyone actually made a complex project with these initiatives, and had it spark an interest in computing/e…
This comment strikes me as slightly oxymoronic. If it does fulfil its promise for education, how can it just be a fad? Is education of no value?
Even in narrow instrumental terms, it has value in providing a pleasurable and accessible approach for kids to try out programming. But beyond that, I wonder if the platforms that provide both block and text representations of a program might help programmers at an early stage to gain a more abstract view of what programs are? A mental model in which (eg.) javascript syntax is just one representation of an algorithm, isomorphic with one using 'mere' visual blocks, is pretty easy to come by with these platforms. That might have real educational value (at least for some learners), completely regardless of whether or not visual programming extends to professional uses.
Much of the educational material using these platforms that I've seen does seem pretty poor though, persisting far too long in providing students complete screenshots of the final program. Learning activities then become little more than a rote pattern-matching exercise.